It’s come, not cum.
No offense if you spell it cum and prefer it that way. I’m not saying it’s wrong. It just annoys the hell out of me.
First, there’s no need for a special spelling to distinguish come in the sense of orgasming or the fluids produced during orgasm from other uses of the word. Come means many different things, and always has, and it’s hard to imagine a context in which a reader would be confused about what a fictional character (named, say, Veronica Bly) meant when she said, “Come on my face.”
Second, I hate cute spellings.
Brite? Rite (not referring to ceremonies, but to correctness)? Lite? Please.
Olde, shoppe? Spare me, Victorian wannabe.
Even donut still bugs me a bit. But I understand and enjoy the way language evolves. And doughnut is a bit of a PITA to write out.
If come in all its senses were to change to cum over time, I would embrace that as being easier to write and less confusing to beginner readers. (My forehead would wrinkle over whether we’d be making the Latin cum, which sneaks into English, more confusing—but I’m a practical lass, and I would get over it.)
It may be silly, but cum gives me this feeling that the writer is nudging me with a pointy elbow and whispering, “Heh, heh—this is smutty stuff we’re talking about.”
If you’ve been taught that cum is the word for the action and/or fluid associated with sexytimes, then I forgive you, and I hope you’ll forgive me for being a bit snotty about cum. I know you’re not trying to be smarmy.
But if you’ve ever wondered, even for a second, whether it’s okay to spell it come?
Yes. Yes, it is. Embrace that feeling. And send me a link to your newly cum-free prose.
You have given me food for thought. Of course the context will establish the come. I’ve used both and thought cum interesting in a sex story, but now I think I will just use ‘come’ after reading this post. Where it is appropriate, I think, to use ‘cum’ is when you are sexting with jackals who enjoy sex talk. I enjoyed this, VB, and I’m not kidding about rethinking the usage, as I agree with you about cute spellings and abhor things like ‘prolly’ and ‘puter’.
I do think you are being over sensitive about ‘donut’ though.